James wrote:
The rest of the population is getting tired of footing the bill to subsidize
a few. Wy don't you take up a collection from the local boaters and see if
you can put together 3/4 million dollars? Start things off with 5 or 10k of
your own money.



I'll be glad to, when the gov't quits taking my money &
using it to subsidize other things that are NOT in the
Constitution (interstate commerce, which is what the ICW's
purpose, is) and which I disagreew with, like subsidies to
int'l oil & pharmaceutical conglomerates.



Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
I'll admit, I don't know much about the AICW, but when it was at it's
designed depth and width, how much commercial traffic did it handle?

Lots & lots & lots.

It's also more fuel efficient to ship by barge than by
truck; and barges can carry objects that are too large &
heavy to transport by train.

Another object of the ICW is to have a shipping route during
WW2 that was safe from U-boats. Not much of a priority
today; unless you count reduced concern about port security.

I just spent some time googling and I can't find any cites
at the moment, but I'ves seen figures that money spent on
the ICW is less than the increased insurance rates for
shipping ICW vs offshore. The commercial interests *do*
spend a lot of their own money on ICW dredging, BTW, but I
think over the last few years they've seen the writing on
the wall and given up.

DSK